The United States army is sharing a military base with Iranian-back militia in Iraq, Bloomberg has reported.
Both nations forces are using the Taqqadum military base in Anbar, where President Barack Obama has just sent an extra 450 soldiers to help train local forces fighting the Islamic State terrorist group, the report said.
And it added that some of the same Iranian-back paramilitary troops at the base had killed US soldiers in the past.
Senate Armed Services chairman John McCain told the WSJ: “It’s an insult to the families of the American soldiers that were wounded and killed in battles in which the Shia militias were the enemy. Now, providing arms to them and supporting them, it’s very hard for those families to understand.”
The paper said the US was not directly training the Shiite units, which include tens of thousands of Iraqis who have volunteered to fight against the Islamic State, but America was flying close air support missions for those forces.
US weapons are also falling into the hands of Iranian-backed forces via Iraq, which does receive weapons from the US.
Bloomberg quoted one US official as saying: “This collaboration with terrorist groups that have killed Americans was seen as unavoidable as the US marshaled Iraqis against the Islamic State, but could prove counterproductive to US interests in the long term.”
The reports said James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, confirmed in a June 3 letter to seven Republican senators that, ‘Iran and Hezbollah have also leveraged allied Iraqi Shiia militant and terrorist groups – which receive training in Iran – to participate in pro-Assad operations.”
Bloomberg added: “With the deadline approaching for a nuclear deal that would place up to $150 billion in the hands of Iran, the US is now openly acknowledging in its annual report on international terrorism that Iran is supporting a foreign legion, comprising Afghans, Iraqis and Lebanese fighters, to defend Iranian interests throughout the Middle East.
“But the US response to this is inconsistent. In Iraq, America is fighting alongside Iranian-backed militias.
“In Syria, US-supported forces are fighting against these same militias. The tragedy of this policy is that the Islamic State has been able to hold and expand its territory in Iraq and Syria, while Iran has been able to tighten its grip on Baghdad.”